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Publication Abstract from PubMed

The ribosome carries out the synthesis of proteins in every living cell. It consequently represents a frontline target in anti-microbial therapy. Tuberculosis ranks among the leading causes of death worldwide, due in large part to the combination of difficult-to-treat latency and antibiotic resistance. Here, we present the 3.3-A cryo-EM structure of the 70S ribosome of Mycobacterium smegmatis, a close relative to the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The structure reveals two additional ribosomal proteins and localizes them to the vicinity of drug-target sites in both the catalytic center and the decoding site of the ribosome. Furthermore, we visualized actinobacterium-specific rRNA and protein expansions that extensively remodel the ribosomal surface with implications for polysome organization. Our results provide a foundation for understanding the idiosyncrasies of mycobacterial translation and reveal atomic details of the structure that will facilitate the design of anti-tubercular therapeutics.

The Complete Structure of the Mycobacterium smegmatis 70S Ribosome.,Hentschel J, Burnside C, Mignot I, Leibundgut M, Boehringer D, Ban N Cell Rep. 2017 Jul 5;20(1):149-160. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.06.029. PMID:28683309^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.